For the last two nights I've been camped at Butter Pond Provincial Park and yesterday I drove into St. John's to have a look around. It's was a confusing (for me) city to drive in (no easy grid layout here) with the curves and hills, and they seem to like five way intersections - but at least I avoided going the wrong way on a one street and I found Signal Hill with only two wrong turns.
Signal Hill overlooks the entrance to St. John's Harbour and atop the hill sets Cabot Tower where, even today, a canon blast signals 12 noon to the city below. The Hill has always been important - the French and English fought over it, later it was important to the commercial success of the port (signalmen would use flags to signal the docks as to what ship was arriving) and in wartime (especially WWII) it was fortified as the Harbour was home port to the North Atlantic submarine defense fleet. Today it's a National Historic Site.
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| A very interesting exhibit with a great film |
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| Entrance to the St. John's Harbour |
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| The Harbour - small but very well protected |
Next up, a drive out to Cape Spear, the eastern most point in Canada and home to the oldest surviving lighthouse on Newfoundland. The drive was short, and could have been shorter, but I took the long (wrong turn) way.
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| It was a nice sunny drive until |
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| This is the "new" lighthouse - built 1955 |
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| This is the oldest lighthouse on Newfoundland - built 1830 |
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| The inside was restored circa 1839 |
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| Butter Pot Pond at the Provincial Park I camped at. |
Now you have been to the Western and Eastern most points of North America that you can drive to. Im enjoying the trip.
ReplyDeleteThe pictures are great and some looked foggy. Was it? One thing I have noticed that there are no people in most of the pictures and that seems unusual. Maybe you are really lucky and are a good picture taker. Great to see all the places from my home. Thanks and safe travels.
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